Today was exploration day! We walked through Playa Del Carmen, which has a lovely downtown center with tons of shops, eateries, and little beautiful hotels. Everything you need is within walking distance, and there's so much to see that it's impossible to do everything is one day. We explored another little downtown hotel named Casa Lunata with a beautiful hacienda-style garden right in the center. We saw two patrons in the garden and they raised their drinks at us. The whole atmosphere is very relaxed and laid-back, with most people walking around in sandals and bathing suits.

There's lots of neat street art and plaques that describe the local art and history, every bench seemed to have a sign like the one on the left, describing some myth or something else of local interest.

These little signs were everywhere along the main streets, and most of them had English translations. We kept stopping to take pictures and read them. My husband got several fantastic shots.

We saw fantastic street art from local vendors, and also some great funky stuff that looked like it was created specifically for tourists, like this life-size Day of the Dead statue.

The Aztec warrior below was found in an art gallery, selling for approximately 6,000 USD. It was silver and bronze, and incredibly heavy. Some of the local art is stunning, and some of it is obviously created for tourists. If you want to spend lots of money here, you can certainly find a way to do it.

Many of the clothing shops sold traditional clothing, and there was a lot of sheer, gauzey cotton clothing that was designed to be comfortable in the oppressive heat. This little shop sold only white cotton clothes, and many of the dresses were quite beautiful. We were on a strict budget, so I didn't indulge. I took a picture of the outside of the shop because I thought it was lovely.

You can walk around all day and not see everything that's worth seeing, even just a few blocks from the hotel. I wish we had more time to explore this wonderful city, it's a real gem just outside of Cancun, where you have all the comforts of home, but in a tropical paradise.